A lot has happened since our last post, so we thought it was about time to update everyone on the progress of our adoptions. By the end of summer 2011, we had been able to send $21,000 of the $30,000 needed to Haiti. We had also completed all needed paperwork, and were waiting on the government of Haiti to complete the adoptions.
Last fall, one of our dear friends here in Gilbert held a garage sale to raise funds for our adoptions. Many people donated items for the sale, and one of the 6th grade girls in our son Matt's youth group held a bake sale during the garage sale. To everyone's amazement, $1,300 was raised (nearly $100 came from the bake sale alone)! This money, along with $3,700 more which came from T-shirt sales and several generous donations, enabled us to send a $5,000 check down to Haiti this week. If you are good at math, you've already deduced that we are now only $4,000 short of the $30,000 goal. God has been so good!! We haven't even known where most of this money was going to come from, it just arrived!!! If anyone is still interested in helping, we have a lot of t-shirts left. Please consider purchasing one.
On December 26th, we were able to fly to Haiti and spend a wonderful Joyuex Noel with our three children, and all of the kids at Good Neighbor Orphanage. The orphanage now has a guest house, which we stayed in, and it enabled us to spend some glorious "private time" with Michelove, Moise and Sophonie. Four days with them only strengthened our resolve to get the adoptions competed! While we were there, the children of Good Neighbor put on a Christmas Pagent, which included a wonderful feast. It was very special to celebrate our Savior's birth with these wonderful people, and is a Christmas we will never forget! The Kidder family, from Tennessee was also visiting for the holidays, and the two families made sure that "Papa Noel" made an appearance. Each of the 37 children received a momogrammed backpack filled with games, activities and candy. As much as the children appreciated the gifts, I think we visitors from the states were the most blessed by the experience.
We are starting to see progress within the Haitian government, in regards to adoptions. One of the couples who had started their adoption process before the earthquake, became the first to bring their adopted child home, only 2 weeks ago! She is a beautiful little girl, who is best friends with our little girl, Sophonie. This gives all of the other waiting families hope that our adoptions will be completed soon. Our paperwork is waiting in the office of the President of Haiti, for his signature on the presidential wavier that will complete the adoptions. We are praying that the red tape will soon be parted, and our's as well as the other adoptions that our waiting (including the Kidder's and many other families we have met) will reach their conclusions very soon.
Thank you so much to all of our friends, relatives and a lot of people we haven't even met, who have kept us in their prayers, purchased t-shirts, and donated to the cause. We thank God for each of you!!
We are almost there!! Rich and Nanci
